Morgan Wade

Morgan Wade grew up in the rural town of Floyd, Virgina, which embraced her when she started performing in 2016. The surrounding area has a vibrant music scene that includes the FloydFest music festival, which she played in 2019 and again in 2022 when she was an established act.

Wade went the college route, graduating from Roanoke's Jefferson College of Health Sciences in 2016 Roanoke with a degree in Exercise Science and a minor in Public Health. But instead of getting a sensible job in the health care field (the plan was to become a cardiothoracic surgeon), she formed a band called Morgan Wade & the Stepbrothers, and pursued music full time. The band released an album in 2018 but Wade soon went solo, first garnering attention with her 2019 single "The Night."

She started writing songs when she was a freshman in college, but because she was going to a health sciences school, there weren't a lot of musicians she could tap to form her band, so she went on Craigslist and answered an ad for a band looking for a singer. The bass player, Ed McGee, ended up in Wade's own band for a few years.